Day Four - Ellesmere to Lancaster

What can I say about last nights B&B,  it was perfect in every way... it felt like home !!!!

Today was the start of my fourth day on this adventure. It was also the day I learned the meaning of life. More on this later but first I had a date with a large tub of E45 cream !!!

I knew today was a fairly easy day. I planned to leave just after Deb and Cal had gone off for school/work so I had the maximum time with them. To say last night was perfect and lovely is the understatement of the year. But all good things have to come to an end and after a great nights rest and feed I said goodbye and see you next Tuesday XXXX

Then I got ready, posted my door key through the letterbox and as I heard the clang of the key hit the wooden floor inside I knew I had to get on my bike and start out for Lancaster.  I could have rang Deb and said i wasn't going. I was staying put and sod the lejog I will refund everyones donations and do it another year.  No I couldn't do that.  I was committed or rather I should have been !!!

First job was to do my duty and get myself off to the polling station in town to put my EU vote in the box.

Vote cast, I met some people at the polling station, some looked at me and did that double take.  Who is that weirdo on a bike.  Whilst I was there a photographer from the advertiser took some pics.  He wasn't actually there for me but whilst his gig had been cancelled he thought he might come away with atleast something.  What better than a maniac doing lejog. I just checked and the story is in tonights but he called me Richard Jones !?!?!?  Oh well, never mind.

What a stunning village I passed through 3 seconds later. One of the prettiest places since leaving Lands End.  I may be biased but Ellesmere is drop dead gorgeous.

I had forgotten that my route passes through Wales for about 12 minutes.  It all counts.  I love Wales. Best country in the world.

I was getting very emotional whilst setting off from Whitchurch as I knew the road ahead was long and after the Runcorn Bridge totally unknown to me.  There is a strange feeling you get the further you are from home. If you are close by you feel safe and familiar but the further away you get the more isolated and alone you feel.  I did feel this going to lands End by train culminating in a bit of a mild panic in the taxi but at least for the last 3 days I had aiming for and getting closer to my home.  Now for the next 5 days I was planning to ride my bike as far away from home as humanly possible all the way up to where the land ends at John O Groats.  This was very scary and it hit me all of a sudden.  This was unexpected and no training or planning can get you ready for such a thing.  Your mind and emotions are the number one thing you battle on such a journey or task.  Your legs are made of flesh, bone and muscle and they will basically keep on doing what your brain tells them to do.

Feed-rest-pedal-feed-rest-pedal......

Just as I was rounding a corner on the A49 heading to Tarporley about 10 miles north outside of Whitchurch I spotted a man walking on the road.  I didn't think anything at first but when I got closer I could see he had battered old flip flops on and a sign on his back.  His name is Paul and he is walking barefoot from Lands End to John O Groats for Cancer Research UK.

He is without doubt the most amazing person I have ever met.  The reasons he is doing it and the story is inspirational.

Here is his website..   http://www.barefootforcancer.com/

I am honoured to have met this man and that meeting stayed with me for the whole journey up to JoG.

OK, I don't care who knows it but I cried out loud for the next 10 miles. Not just cried, sobbed like a baby who had caught his finger in a car door.  It wasn't nice but I didn't give a damn.  I was starting to break and I knew it. I had to go through this process as this was the main aspect to such a thing as this.  I call it deconstructing but I guess it was just the start of the emotional rollercoaster and this bit was going to be the low point.  I was hoping it wouldn't last too long but looking back it probably lasted for the next 3 days.

Anyway, here is a another picture of a nice house.....

This was in Eaton near Tarporley.

Don't worry, this story has a very happy ending and for me it totally re-built me but follow the story if you want.

Hatchmere Lake.. Stopped for munchies and a another wee  !!

This bit is for anyone thinking of doing the end to end.  One of my main worries was crossing over the Runcorn Bridge as most people have to to get from Cheshire into Lancashire and north towards their goal.

I luckily did a trial run up here and found the cycle path which takes you to the southern side of the bridge where this lovely cycle path is for us to stop being run over.  When you get to Frodsham stay on the easterly road out (A56) and find the Holiday Inn, turn past this onto Wood Lane and then you get to this traffic light. Straight ahead of you is the cycle path, this takes you straight to the shopping centre and then you pick up the other cycle path straight to the Bridge !!  Voila !!

Lots of lovely safe cycle paths to help you along the way through Widnes, St Helens...

Hello M6.  You look like a really good, fast but deadly way to get to Lancaster. It is also illegal to get on an M road with a bike. Shame !!

My tri-bars were not being used much today so they come in handy in other ways. Waste management.

The home of the famous Saints, top rugby club.

I wandered into the little town of Eccleston which is the home of Sir Bradley Wiggins.  Here is his golden post box he got for winning gold at the 2012 Olympics.

I am not sure but this may well be the River Ribble in Preston

This is a very special place in my heart as this is the town where my mum was born... Preston !!

Below is another little personal landmark.  Last year I did a few charity rides which were one day single distance challenges.  This is the point I passed through when I rode across Northern England in one day 162 miles from Blackpool to Spurn Point.  Blackpool Road in Preston.

Destination reached... Lancaster.  Home of the famous Sir Richard Owen.  You could not write it could you. I had to get a selfie outside it.  It is a Wetherspoons pub and all the locals smoking outside were looking at me in that way that said " Why are you so chuffed about a crappy old pub"

Lancaster...  official home of the Duchy (aka Queen Elizabeth II)

Once again the plan was eat, wash, rest so here is another use I found for carrying my Chinese takeaway back to the B&B.  This B&B was with the lovely host Della and her daughter Marcie. They were lovely and made me feel at home with my bike parked in their kitchen.  I used airbnb and I have to say I was totally hooked first time I used it but by now I was pretty much sure I would never use any other method of staying around the country. It is fantastic.  You basically get to stay in someones house and use it as your own for one night, get breakfast and go. But what you get along with it is a snapshot of life with different and very interesting people along the way.

Stats: 100 miles, 3323 feet climbed, just 5526 calories burned today !!  Again just over 7 hours so not a bad average pace.  So I had an early night not knowing that around the country the votes were coming in and the next day we had voted to leave the EU !!!!